SB was asking where all the photos are. As I haven't found (or made) the time to do regular blog updates, I thought I'd post a link to the photo gallery. It has some photos in there that haven't made it in to the blog.

In the gallery, be sure to click the 'L' link to view the photos at their best. You can also subscribe or use feeds to get the latest photos. I think you can use the feeds in iPhoto and others.

We finally checked out of San Francisco (for now). The hire car was booked for midday AND believe it or not I was there on time pick it up! We waited (and waited) for the car to be ready and eventually got out of the city about 2pm.

The drive south to Santa Cruz really isn't that far (it's much like driving from Melbourne to Philip Island). We stopped in Half Moon Bay for lunch, had some great mexican food. Moving on, we made it to Santa Cruz by dusk.

After checking in, we went for a drive around the city. Silly idea! We didn't have a map. We drove around for about 2 hours, somehow getting more and more lost. Eventually had to stop at 7-11 and buy a town map. We found our way back to the hotel and decided it would be better to discover this city in the day light.

Today we woke up late and maybe just a little hungover after seeing Razorlight at Slims the night before.

We got away from the hotel about midday and took two cable cars to Valejo Street. We followed a walking tour from the trusty Lonely Planet guide. Wow, there's like 1000's of stairs to climb. Something about the angle of these stairs is wrong! They seem to increase the effect of gravity on your body.The walk climaxes when we finally get some down hill action - walking down the famous Lombard Street. Yay a crooked street.

Instead of getting back on a cable car we continued down the hill ending up at a place (Columbus Ave) where we'd been a few nights earlier. We walked more until we stumbled across what must have been San Francisco's 'Little Italy'. It's not that different to Lygon Street Melbourne. Had an okay lunch there at Calzones Restaurant (a bit expensive and not that good).

Hitting the uphill again we walked to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. A nice view of the city, but the place we went to the day before was better. Heading east from Coit Tower the street is a pedestrian only path that winds and drops away quickly, later it's boardwalk and wooden steps with cool semi-tropical gardens - I would definitely recommend this route, if I could only remember the name of the street...

We make it back to sea level and we're a block from the wharves (again!). We walk back in to the city and find another cable car to get back to our end of town. The sun was setting as the cable car slowly followed it up the hill.

Tonight we didn't leave the hotel, I have a cold and we had plenty of stuff to work out. Several hours later now, we have almost have a plan. For the next week we'll be hiring a car and going south of San Francisco to Santa Cruz, Big Sur and beyond.